Wednesday, 22 February 2017

Visual Communication: Studio Brief 2 - Initial Task 2

Final 10 Ideas

Here are my final 10 ideas which I will begin to realise through rough sketches, iterations and thumbnails in my sketchbook. I spent a lot of time over the past few days since receiving the brief  just sitting, thinking and reflecting about things I can do to inject kindness into my everyday life as well as bigger things that my peers could do to make a difference in the studio for me and my Guide Dog:

• Feed the Pigeons
• Flowers to Nurses
• Respect Rodentia
• Be Charitable
• Water Your Plant(s)
• Don't Make Obstacles!
• Make Time to Relax
• Enjoy Nature
• Watch Where You're Going!
• Drink Less Coffee

I considered short snappy titles that go straight to the point; almost like a tagline on a product, using literary devices such as exclamation marks to really get the point across and alliteration for repetition of letters employing a nice flow to the title. One thing did come to mind; are we allowed to feed pigeons anymore?

The Mirror: Lonely Woman Must Pay £2,300 for Refusing to Stop Feeding Pigeons
• Daily Mail: Pensioner Fined £50 for Feeding Pigeons
The Sun: Pensioner Feeding Pigeons in the Park Fined £80 for Littering
Metro: Council Takes Teenager to Court for Feeding McDonald's Chip to Pigeon

I have heard a number of stories in the news of older folk extending a kind hand and wanting to share their lunch with a friendly pigeon. Jobsworth council people who spot the act will then fine the old person, due to "health and safety" or littering reasons - even though the pigeon will eat everything and nothing is littered at the end! It is a city-by-city and region-by-region law, so I investigated further into whether the feeding of pigeons is against the law in Leeds.


Nothing in this information pack mentions whether it is illegal to feed pigeons... from further investigation, I happened upon this thread on a forum between a gentleman and an environmental services practitioner and environment and housing services manager from Leeds City Council. After much debate, it is concluded that it is, in fact, not against the law exactly - but is encouraged to be contained within quiet, open spaces rather than busy squares or near populated houses or shops.

Good enough for me... back to the task!

Be the Change You Want to See!


One of the most frustrating things in my day-to-day life is the amount of obstacles I come across, impeding my path and making it hard for me to get around with my Guide Dog. The worst offenders are the chairs in the studio at the end of the day; splayed out at odd angles and presenting a maze! Tami is fabulous, but there is only so much she can do and it is very difficult for her to do her job when the exit is blocked. Is this something I want to tackle in my sticker design? A random act of kindness others can do?

Sketchbook Development


• These are my initial responses to the themes I carefully considered for my stickers. I began on quite a small scale to get as many quick ideas down as possible, and found that initially effective, but wasn't happy with my lack of media and material testing and cramming everything onto a page. As the themes continued I wanted to experiment more with how the idea would sit within a circular frame, how the flat vectors would work and consideration for the limited colours.

• I had the most fun designing the demonic obstacles and giving them personalities matching how I have experienced them in the studio space - the dreaded rucksack with its arms ready to grab at my legs and make me fall, the sneaky snake-like scarf slithering itself around my ankles, the lone, silent slippery glove waiting like a comical banana ready to catch me out!

• Going forward, I want to continue with spacing out my ideas on the pages, giving them chance to breathe, continuing to implement the circular frame so that I can give consideration to the available real estate, the composition, the viewpoint and how the shapes will interact with each other.

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